Branch Rickey Quotes

Some day I'm going to have to stand before God, and if He asks me why I didn't let that [Jackie] Robinson fellow play ball, I don't think saying 'because of the color of his skin' would be a good enough answer.

It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.

I cannot face my God much longer knowing that his black creatures are held separate and distinct from his white creatures in the game that has given me all that I can call my own.

Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence or indifference are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.

Success is that place in the road where preparation meets opportunity.

Worry is simply thinking the same thing over and over again and not doing anything about it.

Ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.

Man may penetrate the outer reaches of the universe, he may solve the very secret of eternity itself but for me, the ultimate human experience is to witness the flawless execution of the hit-and-run.

We win if the world is convinced of two things, that you are a fine gentleman, and a great baseball player.

Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Luck is the residue of design.

It (a baseball box score) doesn't tell how big you are, what church you attend, what color you are, or how your father voted in the last election. It just tells what kind of baseball player you were on that particular day.

If things don't come easy, there is no premium on effort. There should be joy in the chase, zest in the pursuit.

There never has been a man in the game who could put mind and muscle together quicker and with better judgment than Robinson.

Problems are the price you pay for progress.

The greatest untapped reservoir of raw material in the history of our game is the black race.

Don't look at the hole in the doughnut. Look at the whole doughnut.

I don't like the subtle infiltration of 'something for nothing' philosophies into the very hearthstone of the American family. I believe that 'Thou shalt earn the bread by the sweat of thy face' was a benediction and not a penalty. Work is the zest of life; there is joy in its pursuit.

I don't care if I was a ditch-digger at a dollar a day, I'd want to do my job better than the fellow next to me. I'd want to be the best at whatever I do.

I'm a man of some intelligence. I've had some education, passed the bar, practiced law. I've been a teacher and I deal with men of substance, statesman, business leaders, the clergy... So why do I spend my time arguing with Dizzy Dean?

Don't worry about your individual numbers. Worry about the team. If the team is successful, each of you will be successful, too.

Never surrender opportunity to security.

I did not mind the public criticism. That sort of thing has not changed any program I thought was good.

The man with the ball is responsible for what happens to the ball.

First of all, a man, whether seeking achievement on the athletic field or in business, must want to win. He must feel that the thing he is doing is worthwhile; so worthwhile that he is willing to pay the price of success to attain distinction.

Baseball people are generally allergic to new ideas; it took years to persuade them to put numbers on uniforms, and it is the hardest thing in the world to get Major League Baseball to change anything—even spikes on a new pair of shoes—but they will eventually...they are bound to.